ABSTRACT
A common belief in the apparel industry is that mannequins are beneficial communication tools. Indeed, mannequins are described as one of the most powerful marketing tools available to fashion retailers and there are only a handful of clothing stores into which a consumer might enter that a mannequin is not present. Specifically, when consumers who are low in appearance self-esteem are exposed to a female mannequin they will evaluate the product the mannequin is displaying more negatively because they are threatened by the beauty information she has made salient. If a retailers' target market is comprised of consumers low in appearance self-esteem then one solution is to decrease a female mannequin's ability to make the normative standard of beauty salient. Using a headless mannequin will preserve product evaluations for consumers both low and high in appearance self-esteem.
